December! Gotta finish this so I can do my year-end recap, which in retrospect seems kind of silly after writing the monthly recaps but whatever.
The boys turned 16! They had friends over a couple of nights before, and we went to the bonfire, as usual. We had steaks for dinner on their actual birthday.
I got to see my friend Zandy for the first time since 2019!
Their big gift was Saints tickets, which we went to (and this time, they won, woo!)
Ziggy was cute, duh.
Soccer was played. They actually won a game! Twice!
Took them shopping individually. I only had to have sushi twice!
Christmas was nice. We did the usual Christmas Eve traditions (steak dinner, eggnog daiquiri for me, read TNBC, took the stocking pic. My sister and fam came to Baton Rouge for Christmas, so we went there on Christmas Day.
The next day, they came to New Orleans and we went to Christmas fest. I ice skated!
Later in the week, I went to Baton Rouge alone to help my mom and Larry after she had a procedure on her hand. I don’t want to talk about it.
Lots of driving happened.
Then it was New Year’s Eve and Miles and I watched the fireworks on the levee!
Other random things: my car broke down, pretty decorations, our friend’s birthday party, moms blog Christmas party, camellias bloomed, Oliver made an island, advent calendars, hooray! etc.
Better late than never, I suppose. I barely posted at all last year, a mere 28 times! And 12 of those were monthly pics, so only 16 other posts? Actually that is more than I would have thought. Anyhoo, I’m going to try to post more in 2023. (For context, in 2014 I posted 342 times.)
January
We were in the middle of that Omicron wave so my birthday was low key. Obviously that’s the only important day in January. But it was a lovely day anyway, sitting outside with friends and drinking margaritas and eating king cake.
Also I got a new sewing machine. Love.
February
I took an amazing jeans making class from the inimitable Lladybird. It wasn’t just the sewing tips but also the camaraderie from other sewists and just being around happy people that was so lovely.
I feel like maybe the last thing I want to do is revisit 2021, but you know, there were some real high points, so let’s do it.
January
I turned 46. I sat around the fire pit at my friend Jen’s house and it was all I wanted to do for my birthday – so it was perfect. Spending time with my friends was what made 2021 bearable, but it happened so infrequently, so that is what made it terrible.
February
Mardi Gras! I spent a lot of January preparing for this, the Schitt’s Creek house float that I participated in. It was one of the high points of 2021. I had so much fun making my Moira costume (and Jen’s!) and helping with the creation (mostly telling Chris what to do) and then on Mardi Gras day, seeing all the people and BEING INTERVIEWED BY THE BBC.
You know, in case you wanted to watch it.
That wasn’t the only excitement in February. The boys were also enrolled in a COVID vaccine trial (Moderna) and we learned later in the year that they actually did get the vaccine (first one in February, second in March.)
March
Really, not much happened. Well, I got my vaccine. That was nice.
Things were looking up. We found out the boys were fully vaccinated. Was it over? We were able to take off our masks and do things! I took the boys to a couple of soccer games. We ate at a restaurant! We booked a trip to California! Life was back to normal! I call this “the golden time.” Boy were were we naive.
We got devastating news in the middle of the month when my sweet cousin Molly died suddenly. I still can’t believe it.
The boys and I went to California to visit Evan and Jennifer and Ellie. It was a lovely trip, even though it was under a cloud of sadness. Things still felt normal. We went to Disneyland and to an LAFC game and to the beach, and I got to meet my best friend in person finally. (She’s 3.)
This is when the golden time ended. LA had re-introduced a mask mandate not long before we got there. Delta was coming. Thank god we went when we went, or we wouldn’t have been able to go at all.
This is going to be a weird year-end recap. Let’s see.
January
I got to go to Lisbon! Thank god we planned our meetup for January, or my only trip (outside of Louisiana, anyway) in 2020 never would have happened. Also I turned 45 there. (My third birthdaymeetup since I started at Automattic.)
The boys finished up their season playing soccer for the school team, which ended in winning the championship! I adore this picture of Linus.
February
Kiki came to visit! Thank god. I’m so glad I got to see her this year at least once. We ate a lot and took a road trip to Alexandria and Natchitoches for Linus’s archery tournament.
Later in the month was Mardi Gras! Where we were probably all spreading COVID like crazy! I made a fun Mardi Gras dress. Maybe I’ll get to wear it again in 2022.
Well it started out okay. I had raised over $2000 for St. Baldrick’s and I was so ready for my hair chop scheduled for the end of the month. Yeah, that still hasn’t happened. I did get a haircut, but nothing too drastic. (You can still donate, you know!)
Friendship day at the beginning of March. Probably we were all spreading COVID like crazy here too.
I took two days off to spend with Linus and Miles, just like I’d done the year before. We ate lunch and escaped from rooms.
Two days before Oliver and I were supposed to have our day off, I was sitting at soccer practice waiting for the boys when I got a message from the school. It was going to be closed for the next two days because there was a possible connection to a COVID case. You know what happened next.
For the first few months of the year, I didn’t do a ton of sewing for myself. I made a lot of Mardi Gras scarves for other people, so it kind of burned me out on sewing for a bit. Fortunately, it came back sometime in the spring.
I can’t say enough good things about this. I get compliments every time I wear it. Lots of compliments. I was a little skeptical at first of using this IKEA upholstery fabric but it was the right call. Yet another great layering piece, and not at all hard to make. Read More
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